2017 / Danube River Romai Promenade: Designing with Dynamic Forces / A- Ideas
The political atmosphere for urban development and public space projects in Budapest has reached a critical turning point and a paradigm shift is needed. Heavy top-down government processes which ignore the will and needs of citizens can be seen in recent projects such as Varosliget and Római Part. This approach represents a larger ideology which threatens social and ecological democracy throughout the country.
The goal of this research is to outline effective landscape strategies to accompany the development of necessary flood protection improvements along a three kilometre stretch of the right bank of the Danube River in northern Budapest, an area known as Római Part. The design solutions proposed in this work are ultimately searching for better ways of harmonizing social and ecological systems.
Design work is based on a typology method in which related yet distinct categories were identified for the promenade based on diverse site analyses. These typologies were then used to categorize a series of design solutions informed by research and reference projects. The result is a Design Matrix which outlines possible design solutions for each typology situation. In this way, the matrix can be used to solve design challenges for the entire three kilometre shoreline in a flexible way by responding to unique situations along the promenade while still producing a unified design character.
